Top 6, because beyond that it will turn into a dogs breakfast. Lineals only. My list is: 1. Wladamir Klitschko 2. Jack Johnson 3. Max Schmeling 4. Jim Corbett 5. Gene Tunney 6. Larry Holmes
janitor,,,,,,,,, May I help correct an error on your part,,,,,,,,,you spelled 'intelligent' incorrectly. Are you talking about 'brain power' or 'ring intelligence'. Brain Power = Gene Tunney
This is very hard to determine. Based on impressions, I agree with Tunney and Schmeling. Both became successful businessmen. I would add Dempsey. He owned and ran a very successful NY restaurant for 30 years. That's not an easy business to make it in. Foreman has made a fortune with his grill. A stupid man could not have done that. He would have let himself be taken by the people around him. Ali is the only one we have documentation on regarding his intelligence. He scored as borderline ******ed on his Selective Service intelligence tests.
Intelligence is too wide an area to measure, someone can have great numeracy ability but poor language ability, not to mention street smarts. Ali was certainly an intelligent individual if I had to pinpoint one though. Lennox and Vitali seem pretty smart, Vitali more so than his brother imo. I'd like to see reasons for your picks Janitor
He is smart with money, though his success in the ring (his recent domination) is thanks to a great trainer. If Steward had been his trainer from the beginning he would have been rated much higher (and 2 ugly losses would probably never have happened) A trainer makes the fighter (if he's good), Wlad his domination is also thanks to his trainer and trainers should get more respect for their job. They're not appreciated enough.
I think this is a better way of wording it. But then I guess it comes down to what you define as intelligent? I mean, Foreman made tons of money but one could argue that makes him business savvy, not necessarily intelligent. Moreover, then you get into the debates about the different types of intelligence, etc... In recent time I think both of the Klitschkos should be up there, as well as Lennox Lewis.
The ones who demonstrated known intellect were Corbett Johnson Tunney Schmeling Charles Foreman Holmes Lewis Vitali Wlad Many others may have been quite bright as well ..
I saw a fairly recent interview with Larry Holmes and he was barely intelligible. He sounded like an idiot. Shavers sounds even worse. They may have the onset of dementia, which I certainly hope is not the case.